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The paper aims to recommend legal and regulatory reforms to better prevent child abuse in childcare institutions in Hong Kong.

A summary of investigation report and news reports are referred to in describing the abuse incidents which occurred in a children’s residential home. Routine Activity Theory (RAT) is used as the framework for identifying the causes. Local and overseas legislation, regulations, case law, and policies are analysed to provide recommendations for reforms.

There are systematic failures such as workload issues, inadequate supervision, and the absence of continuing professional development (CPD) that contributed to the incidents. The regulations governing the operation of childcare centres and criminal laws against child abuse are long overdue for an update in Hong Kong. On the institutional side, this paper recommends enacting regulations that mandate CPD, lower the staff-to-child ratio, and strengthen the Social Welfare Department’s (SWD) supervisory powers over childcare centres. From the criminal law perspective, it is recommended that “reasonable chastisement” be abolished as a defence of corporal punishment, and that there be new offences for failure to report suspected child abuse incidents and causing or allowing the death/serious harm of a child.

The child abuse incidents, occurring in a childcare institution, have drawn wide public concern. Reform is required to protect vulnerable children and regain public confidence.

This paper aims to study the elements of social protection, namely, the labour market policy (working conditions), social insurance and social assistance from the law and policy standpoints to safeguard the rights and welfare of the frontline health-care workers (HCWs).

This study applies both doctrinal and non-doctrinal research methods with the legal and authoritative approaches by integrating the three elements of social protections, which are working conditions, insurance protection and social assistance for the protection of HCWs.

A pragmatic approach to the social protection system by integrating these elements can safeguard the rights and welfare of the frontline HCWs amid the pandemic. This approach should be made effective for the sustainability of the HCW and health industry in Malaysia.

This paper highlights the significance of initiating and empowering ad hoc approaches through the social protection system for the practical and effective protection of frontline HCWs who are the backbone of the nation, in the event of pandemic COVID-19. These practical needs and approaches are pivotal in response to HCWs demands in workplace.

While social protection commonly aims to address disadvantaged groups and to combat poverty, this research adopts the social protection approach with the aims to safeguard the rights and welfare of frontline HCWs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.